This invention relates to auxiliary skis for converting wheeled vehicles into slidable ones, and more particularly to a pair of skis for removable attachment to a wheeled push vehicle for the purpose of converting the wheeled push vehicle into a slidable runner vehicle. The new skis can quickly be detached to return the push vehicle to a wheeled support condition.
A variety of ideas have been advanced for converting wheeled push vehicles such as child strollers into push vehicles having slidable runners for movement over snow. The thrust of known approaches for accomplishing such conversion have heretofore been limited to structures that either lock fore and aft wheels on each lateral side of the vehicle to a ski runner on each side without pulling or pushing the wheels either forward or backward on the ski, or to structures that rely upon elastic tensioning or elastic cables extending from a mid-part of the frame of a wheeled vehicle to a mid-part on the skis. In other words, the known approaches to the problem of providing a removable ski for the fore and aft wheels on a side of a wheeled push vehicle have used fastening or attachment techniques analogous to the techniques for fastening a ski boot to a ski, or have used extensible elastic cables or the like between frame elements of the vehicle and a central part of the ski. Simplicity of structure for the fastening of lateral skis to lateral fore and aft wheels of a wheeled push vehicle and removal of the skis from the wheels has not been a strong point for any known approach for converting a wheeled push vehicle into a slidable one.
This invention provides a pair of skis for converting a wheeled push vehicle having an aligned fore wheel assembly and aft wheel assembly on each side into a slidable push vehicle having a single slidable ski runner on each side. Each ski of the pair has a bottom slide surface, an upper surface, an upwardly curved toe end, and a heel end. A front anchor is on the upper surface of the ski at a location proximate to the toe end and a rear anchor is on the upper surface of the ski at a location proximate to the heel end. A flexible front harness assembly such as a strap is attached to the front anchor, and a flexible rear harness assembly such as a strap is attached to the rear anchor. There is no anchor at any location on the ski between the front and rear anchors. The distance between the front anchor and the rear anchor is rather significant. It is a distance such that any aligned fore wheel assembly and aft wheel assembly to which the ski is capable of being attached can be positioned on the upper surface of the ski between the front and rear anchors in a manner permitting the fastening of the front harness assembly to the fore wheel assembly so as to draw the fore wheel assembly in a forward and downward direction on the ski and in a manner permitting the fastening of the rear harness assembly to the aft wheel assembly so as to draw the aft wheel assembly in a rearward and downward direction on the ski.
Additional significant features for the new skis include a forward stop member on the upper surface against which a fore wheel assembly can be abutted when it is drawn and fastened by the front harness assembly. A similar rear stop member may be on the upper surface for abutting the aft wheel assembly thereto as it is drawn and fastened at the rear. A stabilizing wheel-receiving longitudinal groove may be formed in the upper surface adjacent the stop members and may extend into the stop members. The ski may include one or more longitudinal ridges or grooves on or in its bottom surface to facilitate ease of maintaining a direction for longitudinal sliding movement over snow. The ideal harness assemblies are simple flexible straps.
The new skis can be extremely simple. Ideally, each ski of a pair, including all of its parts except the front and rear harness assemblies, may be made of plastic molded into a single unitary article having the features herein described. The front and rear harness assemblies need be nothing more than a simple flexible strap fastenable to a wheel assembly by any of a variety of fastening techniques. A preferred fastening technique involves use of non-adhesive surfaces fastenable by pressure contact (e.g., hook and loop fastening).
Additional features, advantages, and attributes of the invention will become evident as this description proceeds.